Crime Waves: ‘I Touched His Hand and Talked to Him in Bulgarian’

“Manhattan federal prosecutors are pursuing a criminal tax-fraud case against Bernard Madoff‘s brother and sons,” the Post reports today. Details are apparently unclear, but the family members are accused of using the fruits of Madoff’s Ponzi scheming as “a personal piggy bank.”

In other news of criminal relatives, Michael Douglas’ drug-trafficking son apparently served as an informant prior to his arrest—the Post says that at yesterday’s bail hearing, the younger Douglas’ psychiatrist “confirmed speculation that Cameron was released to house arrest last summer ‘because he was going to be an informant.'”

Meanwhile, the “suicidal millionaire mom” accused of killing her autistic son at the Peninsula Hotel has hired John Gotti’s lawyer. Reports the Daily News:

Legal eagle Gerald Shargel, who also represents David Letterman’s alleged blackmailer, confirmed he’ll defend Gigi Jordan, who is to be arraigned Tuesday, but declined to comment further. The news came as a battle over the body of Jude Mirra moved toward a resolution.

“I finally got to see him and say goodbye,” said his heartbroken dad, Emil Tzekov, 39, after viewing Jude’s body in the city morgue Thursday.

“I touched his hand and talked to him in Bulgarian. It was really hard to see him lying down with no life.”

And new deveopments in the Upper East Side jewel heist/murder. From the Post:

A man being questioned in connection with a fatal Madison Avenue jewelry-store robbery had a bulletproof vest in his apartment and a safe filled with stolen gems — including a necklace from the robbed shop, sources said yesterday.

Police had yet to charge the man last night, but spent nearly 24 hours quizzing him at the 19th Precinct station house about the $1.2 million heist, in which an elderly employee was shot to death.